


Let Me

by nerdqueenenterprise



Series: 100 Ways To Say 'I Love You' [4]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Sickfic, paul shouldve stayed in bed probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 20:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15127319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdqueenenterprise/pseuds/nerdqueenenterprise
Summary: Paul is home sick, but he underestimates just how sick he is a little.





	Let Me

Paul wakes up still in half-darkness, but this time it feels hot and pressuring.

Also the bed is empty now.

He crawls out, leaving the blanket messy because being tidy is the least of his worries now that he feels like heated garbage.

_My love, I had to go to work, but I sent your human kids an e-mail from your account that you won’t come in today. I hope they leave you be with questions. The med cabinet is fully stocked, so pick your poison. Take care of yourself. I’ll be back at three-ish. Love you so much. Hugh._

The note is sticking to the bedroom door, even though only one corner is still sticking, holding up the rest.

Feels like an analogy to how Paul feels, to be honest.

 

 

 

 

He manages to change into one of Hugh’s shirts and also a pair of pants, but can’t manage anything more than washing his hands. He doesn’t feel like eating either, so he takes his cup of tea out to the garden where he gets comfy under the sunshade.

No matter how sick he might feel, there are still tests to grade, so he sets out to do that while he sips his tea. He’s never liked those professors who turn everything into an excuse to not do their work, and since he doesn’t feel as sick as last night anymore, he may as well do this.

Except that there are of course fifty new e-mails from his kids, and even more messages in the various WhatsApp groups.

Most of these are well wishes, which are nice, but tedious to click through; a few are essays turned in early, which he’ll try to already grade, too; and finally a whole bunch of questions where Paul’s replies will range from “please learn to fucking read and/or listen in class, we covered this a billion times” to “that’s way above my pay grade, I have no idea”.

 

 

 

 

Jus comes home around one, and he joins Paul under the sunshade, thankfully not pushing Paul to eat something, maybe because he knows Paul spent the night throwing up.

“Hey, buddy, you doing any better?”

“The best way to not throw up is by not giving your body anything it might throw up.”

Jus sighs, but Paul interrupts him before he can say anything.

“Yeah, I know, you and Hugh will sit on me if this gets bad. Jesus, you’d think I was an adult. It’s just me being sick, I promise.”

“Only formally. But anyways - you’ll be happy to hear I finally got into the diamond league on Plants vs Zombies Heroes.”

“Aw, I’m proud of you! My best friend, finally dabbling in the big leagues.”  
“Hey, just because I don’t obsess over a phone game so much!”

“Sorry, I forgot Pokémon Go isn’t a phone game. My bad.”

“Don’t sass me. You’re sick.”

Paul puts on his best impression of a rebellious teenager and replies, “Bitch, I do what I want.”

“You told me the same thing when you hooked up with Hugh.”

“And I ended up marrying him. Your point?”

Jus gives him a friendly kick and gets his laptop out.

“Nothing. Get back to work.”

 

 

 

 

Jus orders lunch eventually, and that’s when Paul decides to leave him, because the smell of whatever hot fried pseudo-Chinese food his friend ordered is making his stomach churn.

He goes through one of their greenhouses instead, checking up on the plants.

The heat and dampness gets to him pretty much immediately. Of course the greenhouse is baking, since it’s just as much in the plain sun as everything else, and all the water and plants of course moisten the air like hell.

Black dots start showing up in his vision, and maybe repotting some of the seedlings should wait until later.

He sits down against the wall when the world spins too much, fingers digging into the metal struts that hold up the wall. The clatter of a stack of simple plastic pots falling down grates on his already sensitive brain, and the pots fall and roll seemingly everywhere.

He’ll have to fix that.

His fingers are sweaty and shaky and refuse to stack the pots properly, and then he finishes the stack he pushed over only for another one to fall.

“Hey.” There’s a hand laying against his back suddenly, steadying him a little. “I think you should go back to bed.”

“Hugh. No. I have to get the pots first.”

Paul twists away from Hugh’s grasp and tries to get his hands on the pots.

Hugh sighs audibly.

“Come here. Let me fix this. You sit down, and then I’ll get you back in bed.”

Hugh is a lot quicker in his movements, but he doesn’t leave Paul enough time to really understand what’s happening before he’s already tugging Paul up, leading him out of the greenhouse into refreshingly hot, dry air.

A few blinks of Paul’s drooping eyelids or maybe several hours later, they’re in the cool foyer of the house. Hugh says something that Paul doesn’t understand, but Paul does end up on the couch eventually.

Then he sleeps.

**Author's Note:**

> since some people wanted a continuation of [this fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15054299)  
> it's not really a continuation, since that fic is in canon while this one is a modern au, but ehhh close enough!


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